NOT JUST ABOUT KNITTING

On Wednesday, many ukulele players, including Alexa and myself descended upon Jey's Kitchen for a ukulele jam session. Our leader, Arlene, projects the lyrics and chords on a big screen and we all play and sing along. Most of the people took ukulele lessons through the Whitby Seniors so most of us were geezers.

Of course, Ernest, Veronica, and Thomas wanted in on the action.

We played from 7pm until about 9 including several tunes with kazoo bits. My fingers on my left hand were kinda sore the next day. 

Arlene's gang does the jam session on the first Wednesday of the month. Alexa and I will be on our Christmas Market cruise for the next one but I hope to attend in January. I want to keep up my ukulele 'chops' so I'll be ready for music camp again next summer.

I finished the red scarf and this morning, dropped it and a library book that was coming due at the Central Library. Then popped over to Michaels to pick up the yellow, white, blue, and green yarn I need for the Arne and Carlos Mystery Christmas Stocking Knitalong. The first installment began at 12 noon Eastern time - 4 minutes ago.

I'm using the leftover red yarn from the red scarf project as well.

I have done the last three stockings from 2023 to 2025.

This was taken before I added the afterthought heel (where arrow points). I'm pretty sure I finished it but didn't take a photo for some reason.  It's packed away with the Christmas stuff downstairs.

My DK yarn stash isn't organized enough for me to find the remnants from last year's stocking so I had to stock up at Michaels; 25% off - which is what 'Buy One Get One at 50% off' works out to.

I have been poking away at the border of my Mystical Lanterns blanket - currently doing single crochet on the 4th round. I used a different colour yarn for every side on round 2, changing colours at the corners because I didn't know if I'd have enough of any one colour to go all the way around.

I'm copying the border I did on the Persian Tiles blanket:

Round 1 - single crochet - three into the side of each double crochet, one in the centre of the half-lantern, and one each in the ends of the single crochet rows on the half-lanterns.

Round 2 - **3 double crochet in a single crochet from the round below, chain one and skip 3 sc from the round below. Repeat from ** . In the corners: 3 dc, ch3, and 3dc in the same spot.

Round 3 - Starting in a corner, 3dc, ch 3, and in the same spot, 3dc. Then 3dc in every chain space from the round below.

Round 4, 5, and 6 - sc in every stitch. At corners, 3 sc on the corner chain 3 from the round below.

Here's what my finished border looked like on the Persian tiles blanket.

When I got bored with doing that, I picked up the Sophie scarf again and did a few more rows. This finger counter has been so helpful. The (little hearing-aid-type button) battery in this one just keeps on going, and going, and going.

And finally, my Piccola orchid has started to bloom. The blooms are only about 2.5cm (1") in diameter.

As I did last year, and to prolong the blooming stage, I have taken it out of the sunny window. This will slow things down. The other, regular-sized orchid has a flower stalk forming. I anticipate it will bloom within the next month. It last bloomed on January 20 and the blossoms lasted and continued to bloom well into September by using my technique of moving it out of the sunny window.

And now, I must start knitting.

Stay tuned for the progress on the mystery knitalong.